NASHVILLE, Tenn.—During the holiday season, many church-affiliated food pantries across the country will collect donations to help people in need. Chances are, some food donors also know what it’s like to go to bed hungry.

Nearly one in four Americans (22 percent) say their family has turned to a church-run food pantry in the past, according to a new survey from Nashville-based LifeWay Research.

“Churches may have the reputation for serving donuts, coffee and pot-luck dinners to their members,” said Scott McConnell, vice president of LifeWay Research. “But they also are supplying food for many people in need.”

In an online survey of 1,158 Americans conducted in September, participants responded to the statement: “My family has received food from a church-run food pantry in the past.”

Americans from a wide range of backgrounds said “yes.” That includes one in four churchgoers (26 percent) along with one in five (18 percent) people who never attend services.

One in three African-Americans (37 percent) and evangelicals (35 percent) say their family has received help. So do almost three in 10 (28 percent) of those without a college degree.

About one in four Hispanic Americans (25 percent) and one in five (19 percent) Anglos say they received help.

People in the West (28 percent) were more likely to say they’d received help than those in the Northeast (17 percent) or South (20 percent).

Older Americans (11 percent) and those with college degrees (13 percent) were among the least likely to say “yes.”

About 50 million Americans have trouble putting food on the table, according to Feeding America, a national network of food banks. A similar number of people received food stamps in 2013, the USDA reported.

“There is an abundance of food in the U.S., but plenty of people still go hungry,” McConnell said. “Many churches respond by faithfully following the biblical principle of being open handed to the poor and needy by maintaining well-stocked food pantries to share.”

Researchers conducted the online survey of adult Americans Sept. 17-18. They invited a sample of an online panel reflecting the adult population of the United States to participate. Responses were weighted by region, age, ethnicity, gender and income to reflect the population more accurately. The completed sample is 1,158 online surveys. The sample provides 95 percent confidence the sampling error from this panel does not exceed plus or minus 2.9 percent. Margins of error are higher in sub-groups.

NASHVILLE, Tenn.—Protestant senior pastors in the United States want the federal government to mix justice with mercy when it comes to immigration reform.

Most say it’s the government’s job to stop people from entering the country illegally. They support reform that includes a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants already in the country. And they believe Christians should help immigrants—no matter their legal status.

Those are among the findings of a survey of 1,000 Protestant senior pastors from Nashville-based LifeWay Research, conducted prior to the mid-term elections.

Scott McConnell, vice president of LifeWay Research, said pastors don’t approve of illegal immigration. But they want to help illegal immigrants make things right.

“This is one of many cases in which Christians can look at those around them and say, ‘I don’t agree with what got you to this place in life, but I will love you while you are here,’” McConnell said.

Nearly six in 10 Protestant senior pastors (58 percent) agree with the statement: “I am in favor of immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship for those who are currently in the country illegally.” About a third (34 percent) disagree. Seven percent are not sure.

Most African-American pastors (80 percent) agree, as do a majority of white pastors (59 percent). Two-thirds (68 percent) of mainline pastors and more than half (54 percent) of evangelical pastors also favor a path to citizenship.

Small church pastors less likely to agree

Pastors of mid-sized churches are more likely to agree than those from small churches. Two-thirds (66 percent) of pastors of churches with between 100 and 249 attenders agree. About half (54 percent) of pastors with less than 50 people in their congregation agree.  

Two-thirds (63 percent) of pastors under age 45 favor a pathway, as do a little over half (55 percent) of those ages 45-54.

LifeWay Research also found pastors want to help their immigrant neighbors, regardless of their legal status. Caring for immigrants can be “an opportunity to show people who Jesus is,” McConnell said.

About half (47 percent) of Protestant senior pastors say their church currently helps immigrants. And most (79 percent) agree with the statement: “Christians have a responsibility to assist immigrants, even if they are in the country illegally.” One in six (17 percent) disagree.

More than three quarters of evangelical pastors (77 percent) and most mainline pastors (86 percent) agree. Most pastors under 45 (83 percent) and those in churches with 100 or more attenders (82 percent) agree.

The new study parallels the findings of a 2013 LifeWay Research survey. 

In that poll, 58 percent of pastors supported immigration reform. And about half (51 percent) said reform would help their church or denomination reach Hispanic Americans.

Other recent polls concur

Other recent polling found people in the pews have similar views to their pastors on the issue of immigration reform.

A 2014 Pew Research poll showed about two-thirds of Protestants (69 percent) support reform that would allow undocumented immigrants to stay in the country if they meet certain conditions. Three-quarters of Catholics (77 percent) also support reform.

Pew also found fewer than half of Protestants (46 percent) say it is important that reform happens this year.

Protestant pastors of all kinds want the government to do a better job preventing people from entering the country illegally.

Almost nine in 10 (87 percent) agree with the statement: “The U.S. government has the responsibility to stop illegal immigration.”

Most evangelical (91 percent) and mainline pastors (82 percent) agree. Pastors in the Midwest (38 percent) are less likely to agree than pastors in the South (89 percent) and West (90 percent). Pastors under age 45 are less likely to agree (82 percent).

“Justice, love and mercy are all intrinsic to the Christian faith,” McConnell said. “It appears pastors see the need to end illegal immigration as an issue of justice. They also want to show love and mercy while the legal problem is addressed.”

Polling procedures

Researchers conducted the phone survey of Protestant pastors Sept. 11-18. The calling list was a stratified random sample drawn from a list of all Protestant churches. Each interview was conducted with the senior pastor, minister or priest of the church called. Researchers weighted responses by region to reflect the population more accurately. The completed sample is 1,000 surveys. The sample provides 95 percent confidence the sampling error does not exceed plus or minus 3.1 percent. Margins of error are higher in sub-groups.

Philip Tilden Sr., 93, Nov. 24 in Kerrville. He was born in Assam, India, to missionary parents. He was pastor of churches in Texas and California, and he was founding pastor of Sunrise Baptist Church in Kerrville. Philip Tilden Sr.He served as ambassador for the Commission to Every Nation since 2001. He was associational evangelist for Wilbarger County and worked with the Southern Baptist Home Mission Board as a consultant. He served on active duty in the U.S. Army as chaplain, attaining the rank of lieutenant colonel. He also was a chaplain at the Kerrville Veterans Administration Hospital 16 years. In addition, he worked for Heart of the Hills Hospice as director of volunteers and was a counselor for the 3H Boys Ranch two years. He was president of Christian Assistance Ministries and the Kerrville Ministerial Alliance. He also was an accomplished magician, ventriloquist and after-dinner speaker. He was preceded in death by his wife of 46 years, Doris. He is survived by his sons, Philip Jr. and Daniel; daughters, Francy Neal and Juanita Alfaro; 16 grandchildren; and 13 great-grandchildren.

Michael Wilson to First Baptist Church in Stephenville as interim pastor.

Cameron Lynch to First Baptist Church in Kenedy as youth and recreation minister.

Seven Howard Payne University students participated in Mission Waco’s poverty simulation, an experience designed to provide a firsthand look at poverty. Mission Waco creates experiences to increase empathy for the poor. In addition to planned activities, participants slept outdoors and experienced finding meals with little or no money. The HPU group of eight was given $2.88 to buy food for all of them. A stranger gave them another $6 that allowed them to eat a little. Dan Humeniuk, assistant professor of social work and chair of HPU’s Department of Criminal Justice, Social Work and Sociology, said the experience showed “how quickly we can fall into situations that are out of our control and end up destitute or homeless.”

Preston Dyer, Baylor University Preston Dyerprofessor emeritus in social work, has been named one of the 30 most influential social workers alive today by Social Work Degree Guide. He served 30 years as director of the Baylor undergraduate program. His research on marriage and families was published in more than 100 academic journals.

Brent Thomason has joined the Dallas Baptist University faculty as assistant professor of biblical studies.

Anniversary

Terry Graham, 20th, as associate pastor at First Baptist Church in Woodway.

MARSHALL—Nine out of 10 students at East Texas Baptist University hail from somewhere in Texas. But a small group of ETBU students—sometimes called “third-culture kids”—find a common bond in a dramatically different life experience.

They grew up as American citizens in foreign countries where their parents serve as missionaries, and they represent less than 1 percent of the ETBU student body.

East Texas Baptist University students walk past the “Divine Servant” sculpture of Jesus washing the feet of Simon Peter as they enter the Ornelas Spiritual Life Center for chapel. (PHOTO: ETBU/Jason Soles)Beth, a senior at ETBU, had to learn to speak a new language at an early age. Her parents serve in Central Asia with the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board, and like other students of missionary parents, she asked to be identified only by her first name for their protection.

“When we first arrived in the country, my parents put me in a native preschool, so that I would learn the language,” she said, but she had a difficult time adjusting.

“I was not very fond of the preschool because of the language barrier and the way teachers ran the classrooms,” she said. “I was only about 3 years old, and it was a very intimidating place. One day, I tried to run home from the school, so my parents decided to take me out. After that, I was home schooled until my seventh-grade year.”

Bret, a junior, grew up in several foreign countries. His parents served as IMB missionaries in Bosnia, Croatia and Scotland, and they are stationed now in Eastern Europe.

High school in Zagreb

“I went to a great high school called the American International School of Zagreb. My high school had only 50 students who were from all over the world,” he said.

Elizabeth, a sophomore, lived in Ecuador, where her parents work with Serving in Mission.

“The first year I lived in Ecuador, I went to a local school to learn Spanish. The second and third years, a couple came from Washington and taught us in English based off a home-school curriculum,” she said.

She returned to the United States after her fourth year in Ecuador to attend public school. Adjusting to the U.S. educational system was not easy, she admitted.

“It was different primarily because of the size. I went from a school with nine students from all grades to more than 2,000 students in four grades. Another difference was that a lot of the students didn’t care about their grades, which was surprising to me, because I had never before realized that anyone would want to do less than their best, especially regarding schoolwork.”

Difficult adjustments

Separation from family and culture shock are among the difficult adjustments so-called third-culture kids face.

“Being away from my family can be hard sometimes,” Elizabeth said. “Also, not knowing background or the culture well. Sometimes, I feel like I missed out on the past four years of life—at least here in the States—and cannot contribute or have any shared high school experience with other students.”

Even little things can pose problems for third-culture kids, Beth noted.

“I had never used a vending machine before, and so that was a challenge. I also had a hard time not speaking Russian to people in stores or restaurants,” she said.

Third-culture kids have first-hand experience living on the mission field, but that does not automatically mean they understand more about missional living than their peers.

“I don’t think you need to be a missionary to live a missional life,” Bret said.

Beth echoed the same idea.

On mission wherever you are

“I think that a missional life can be lived no matter where you are or what you are doing,” she said. “Whether you stay in the same town your whole life, you go to the other side of the world, or you travel a lot, you can live a missional life.

“As followers of Jesus, we are called to preach the good news to all people. You can do that where you are.

“So many people have an image in their mind that if they were in Africa, or something, then they would share the gospel and be living a missional life, but that is very short-sighted. There are so many lost people right here who need to know the Lord. Begin here. That is what a missional life looks like.”

Payton Beggs is a public relations intern at East Texas Baptist University.

VATICAN CITY (RNS)—Two prominent Southern Baptists, Russell Moore and Rick Warren, blasted the sexual revolution at a Vatican conference, saying it is destroying the institution of marriage.

Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, said sexual liberation created “a culture obsessed with sex” that simply led to a “boredom of sex shorn of mystery.”

Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Southern California, told the Vatican conference the church “cannot cower in silence” as marriage is redefined. (YouTube video image)“Western culture now celebrates casual sexuality, cohabitation, no-fault divorce, family redefinition and abortion rights as part of a sexual revolution that can tear down old patriarchal systems,” Moore told a global gathering of leaders from Catholic, Jewish, Muslim and other faiths as part of the “Complementarity of Man and Woman” conference convened by Pope Francis.

The sexual revolution appeared to have imposed a new patriarchy that enabled men to “pursue a Darwinian fantasy of the predatory alpha male” for the pursuit of “power, prestige and personal pleasure,” Moore said.

“Does anyone really believe these things will empower women and children?” he asked. “We see the wreckage of sexuality as self-expression all around us, and we will see more yet.”

Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Southern California, said marriage is being “ridiculed, resented, rejected and even redefined,” and it is time for the church to be a “proponent of what’s right.”

“The church cannot cower in silence,” Warren told the conference. “There is too much at stake.”

Churches should celebrate successful marriages during services, schedule annual reviews of wedding vows, offer marriage courses and promote marriage via the media, he said.

“The church cannot be salt and light in a crumbling culture if it caves in to the sexual revolution,” he said.

DALLAS (BNG)—Cliff Temple Baptist Church in Dallas ministered to the needs of its surrounding Oak Cliff neighborhoods long before the term “missional” came into vogue and before Brent McDougal became senior pastor.

Brent McDougalBut since McDougal’s arrival five years ago, the historically Anglo congregation has moved beyond traditional ministries to the Hispanic communities around it to embrace a variety of cultures.

The congregation embraces Hispanics in leadership and a growing Spanish-speaking membership that’s leading Cliff Temple to adopt more policies and practices to make people of all nationalities feel welcome.

The church simply continued to take steps that confront it as a crossroads for different kinds of people in Dallas, McDougal said.

“The word ‘missional’ is a catchall for anything outside the church walls,” he said. “Where we are, it just means responding to the context that God has placed us in.”

Within a one-mile radius of the church campus, the population is 85 percent Hispanic, with Anglo and African-American neighborhoods located just beyond.

Multi-cultural missions projects are a staple at Cliff Temple. (Photos courtesy of Cliff Temple Baptist Church)Historically, Cliff Temple responded to that context through a number of outreach ministries to Hispanics. While helpful in some respects, many of those ministries reinforced the reality of separation between the church and its neighbors. A Spanish-speaking congregation it hosted largely had the same effect.

Seeing that challenge, Cliff Temple decided several years ago to merge the two congregations.

“We were going to think of one another as one church with two different expressions of worship, as opposed to being a congregation that has a mission to Spanish-speaking people or just with a ministry that’s programmatic in scope,” McDougal said of the decision made before his arrival.

But soon after he became pastor, McDougal said, he realized the idea hadn’t been implemented.

So the church got busy. Early changes included adding Spanish to exterior signage and holding joint worship several times a year.

Cliff Temple members work in the church’s community garden.Cliff Temple also boosted its outreach to meet the practical needs of those living near the church. It created ministries providing food, clothing, job training, English instruction and gardening classes.

The church also offers small-group encounters in the community. Neighbors are invited to members’ homes for simple meals and services as a way of widening the Cliff Temple circle, McDougal said.

Another piece, he added, involves recognition and celebration of Mexican holidays, including hosting an annual Mexican Independence Day party.

“We embraced the Mexican subculture in a Mexican context,” McDougal said. “We don’t lose any of our (U.S.) patriotism, but gain great credibility among those who have found a home in a foreign land.”

Porfirio BasThe church went even further to embrace Mexican culture when it called Porfirio Bas as pastor two years ago.

Initially, the church considered Bas as pastor of just the Hispanic portion of the congregation, but that changed to more fully accept the concept that Cliff Temple is just one congregation, McDougal said.

Before, there had been no mixing of leadership between the different ethnicities at the church, and it contributed to a segmented feeling at Cliff Temple, he noted. That shifted when Bas’ title was changed.

“He’s pastor now. He works as a co-pastor with me,” McDougal said. “We really need that kind of relationship because of our context.”

But context is just as important—and challenging—to the Hispanic members of Cliff Temple, Bas said.

Bas, who was a soap opera star in Mexico during the 1970s and 1980s before eventually becoming a minister, said Anglo Christians aren’t the only ones who struggle to overcome misconceptions about other cultures.

“What I see … is that groups like to be with their ethnicities and with their cultures—that happens with blacks, Hispanics, Koreans,” Bas said.

Cliff Temple’s summer KidzKlub provided children in the community with about 2,000 meals, several hundred books and bookcases, fun activites and Bible study. That’s changing at Cliff Temple, where African-Americans, Hispanics and whites are gelling as a congregation, he noted.

Despite the difficulties, the church is pursuing that growth because it’s actually called for in the Bible, Bas said.

“I can see in Scripture that we should love everybody,” he said. “The Lord is inviting us to the ends of the Earth, and that means all ethnicities and all different groups. Here, we are moving in that direction.”

Local and international mission projects conducted by the full array of the church’s ethnicities solidifies the multicultural bonding at Cliff Temple, McDougal said.

Those projects convey to all members that everyone is valued at the church, he said.

“Churches need to rethink assimilation—the idea that when one joins, they need to be more like us,” he said. “What a missional congregation says instead is, ‘How do we connect with people, whoever they are?’”

What works at Cliff Temple may not work at another church, McDougal acknowledged. Every congregation needs to discern the needs of the community around them and go from there.

“It’s not better or worse,” he said of the multicultural approach. “It’s just different—and the willingness to be open to that which is different is critical for cross-cultural ministry.”

DALLAS—A collaborative effort involving faith-based nonprofit organizations, urban and suburban churches, business, government and public schools improves student academic performance, reduces crime and improves the quality of life in a low-income area, according to a study by Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion.

The institute examined community transformation in West Dallas, looking specifically at an 11.5-square-mile area and the impact of Serve West Dallas, a nonprofit collaborative organization that involves 13 ministry partners, over two years.

“The idea of a backbone organization to support a collaborative of nonprofits is a stroke of genius and is what tends to be missing in so many efforts around the country to transform blighted communities,” said Byron Johnson, co-director of Baylor’s Institute for Studies of Religion.

Serve West Dallas brought together partner organizations, led in collective goal-setting, coordinated efforts to ensure initiatives did not compete or overlap, and tracked progress in multiple areas.

The collaborative approach of Serve West Dallas offers “a reminder that alliances between urban and suburban congregations can be a catalyst to build and sustain community transformation,” Johnson noted.

SOAR helped reading skills

One pilot program—Services Optimizing Academic Reach—recruited volunteers from Highland Park Presbyterian Church and matched them with 20 classes at Amelia Earhart Elementary School.

From fall 2012, before the SOAR initiative started, to spring 2014, the percentage of second- to fifth-grade students reading at or above grade level increased from 17 percent to 40 percent.

Before the church volunteers started providing support for the accelerated reading program, the Dallas Independent School District designated Amelia Earhart Elementary as “improvement required.” By the end of two years, the school district not only removed that negative designation, but also awarded the school special distinction in reading.

Amelia Earhart is the first of nine West Dallas schools targeted by SOAR.

The Institute for Studies of Religion also examined a program in West Dallas that pairs Christian mentors with students in a low-income neighborhood beginning in fourth grade and continuing through grade 12. Researchers looked at which students were at or above grade level in reading and math and which had been designated as “at risk” for dropping out of school.

Comparison of West Dallas statistics with the rest of Dallas (Serve West Dallas chart)The study showed the longer students participated in the mentoring program, the greater their mastery of grade-level math and reading. Research revealed among students in the program less than two years, 36 percent were “on target.” For students in the program longer than two years, the number soared to 82 percent.

The results did not surprise Charles Foster Johnson, executive director of Pastors for Texas Children, an advocacy group that seeks to encourage churches to adopt neighborhood schools.

Mentoring benefits students and volunteers

“If Christians could see one-on-one mentoring as an expression of Christian witness and ministry, it could be a game-changer,” Johnson said. “This could be the positive X-factor that dramatically transforms public education and local neighborhood schools.”

Mentoring benefits both students and volunteers, he emphasized.

“It’s a two-way street. The children improve dramatically in terms of their academic performance. At the same time, mentors benefit spiritually in indescribable ways,” Johnson said.

When mentors make long-term commitments to individual children and develop ongoing relationships with them that span multiple years, the benefits increase exponentially, he added.

Long-term mentoring relationship between adults and young people not only produce positive academic outcomes, but also reap social and emotional benefits for students, said Molly Clayton, executive director of the Texas Partnership for Out of School Time.

The Institute for Studies of Religion research also examined the impact of Serving West Dallas on health and public safety.

Upgrading health care

The study looked specifically at Brother Bill’s Helping Hand, a ministry Bill Harrod launched in the 1940s when he served Eagle Ford Baptist Church in West Dallas, and its community clinic.

The clinic sees an average of 72 patients per week. In addition to providing flu shots, diagnoses for diabetes and hypertension, and other direct health care, the clinic also offers classes on healthy living.

Serve West Dallas enlisted lawyers who represented 20 families to shut down 17 drug houses through court order or settlement from 2009 to 2012.The study revealed 83 percent of the diabetics who attended the classes successfully managed their blood sugar levels, compared to 36 percent of those who did not attend.

Forty percent of the people who attended exercise classes lowered their body mass index so they no longer were overweight or obese, compared to only 6 percent who did so without the classes.

Cooperative efforts to create safer neighborhoods in West Dallas also yielded positive results. Serve West Dallas enlisted lawyers who represented 20 families to shut down 17 drug houses through court order or settlement from 2009 to 2012.

During that period, crime rates in the area dropped 49 percent, compared to an overall 27 percent reduction in the entire city. Estimated savings in the area totaled more than $2 million, based on improved tax revenues, improved property values, reduced crime and reduced maintenance costs.

–Terry Goodrich of Baylor University contributed to this article.

Ed Brown, director of Care of Creation, was the featured speaker during Wayland’s Baptist University’s weeklong focus on creation care. Brown spoke about the need for conservation and Christians’ responsibility to protect God’s creation. Brown has written two books, Our Father’s World and When Heaven and Nature Sing.

East Texas Baptist University will hold Shadow Day Dec. 12 for high school seniors and college transfer students. The event will kick off Dec. 11 with registration and a Tiger basketball game, Christmas on the Hill and the Mabee Hall Christmas party. Participants will spend the night in a dorm, socialize with current students, visit with professors at breakfast and attend classes. Preregistration is required. A $20 nonrefundable fee must be paid, but students who apply for admission during the event will have their application fee waived. For more information or to register, click here. 

Sabine Creek Ranch near Royce City will be the site for “Southern Lights: A Christmas Experience for All Ages.” The event will include light displays set to music, a model train exhibit, hayrides, campfires, food and treats, music groups, a visit with Santa and an elf prom. The event is designed to present the gospel, camp founder Eddie Walker said. Southern Lights will be held on nine nights in December. For information and advance tickets, click here.

Howard Payne University honored 11 individuals during homecoming festivities. Thomas Collins and Hilary Graves were named distinguished alumni, and Benjamin Hoover was recognized as the outstanding young graduate. Marilynn Bock Jackson was the coming home queen, and Ray and Nancy Ellis were the grand marshals of the homecoming parade. Leo and Jane Lacey received the medal of service. Inducted into the HPU Sports Hall of Fame were Meia Daniels, Chris Kielsmeier and Don Newbury.

Shirley Mitchell, secretary for the College of Business at Dallas Baptist University, was honored for 25 years of service to the university.

Anniversaries

Ramiro Castillo, 20th, as pastor of Southern Oaks Baptist Church in Bryan.

Bill Ferrell, 15th, as executive pastor at The Heights Baptist Church in Richardson.

Mike Lawson, 15th, as pastor of First Baptist Church in Sherman.

Anderson Baptist Church in Anderson, 170th, Nov. 11. Kyle Childress is pastor.

Ordained

Denise Bruchmiller, Ann Debarros, Donna Floyd, Carol Johns, Jeanette Lawrence, Sid Lawrence, Steven Lecholop, Gary Martin, Sandra Martin, Arline Patterson and Randy Thomas as deacons at Trinity Baptist Church in San Antonio.

WACO—Hunger kills more people every year than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined, Neville Callam, general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance, told Texas Baptists.

Neville Callam, general secretary and chief executive officer of the BWA, speaks to a luncheon devoted to raising awareness about the Texas Hunger Offering. (Photo/ Leah Allen / BGCT)At a luncheon held in conjunction with the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting, Callam commended Texas Baptists for “being committed to the service to humanity—not because you have to, but because you recognize you need to.”

“You have the capacity to see beyond immediate horizons of your own path,” Callam said. “You plant your eyes on the wide expanse of earth, to see people over there who are struggling and to say, ‘We need to help, because we are children of God.’”

Over the past 18 years, Texas Baptists have contributed about $2.5 million to Baptist World Alliance-related hunger ministries, funding hundreds of projects and feeding thousands of people simply because they love Jesus and love the lost, he said.

Ferrell Foster, coordinator of the Texas Baptist Hunger Offering, presents Bob Billups, executive pastor for First Baptist Church in Midland, the award for Top Giving Church to the hunger offering. (Photo/ Leah Allen / BGCT)“No other Baptist group in the world comes anywhere close to what you have done through the partnership in which you share with us,” he said. “I ask you to see the difference you are making in the world … to see the difference that God is making through you.”

Ferrell Foster and Joyce Gilbreath Kokel with Texas Baptists’ Christian Life Commission presented awards to representatives of churches that have contributed the most toward the Texas Hunger Offering.

They recognized First Baptist Church in Midland as the 2014 Mother’s Day Hunger Offering top giving church and as the top giving church from 1996 to the present.

They also honored Prairie View Chapel in Amarillo as the 2013 top per capita giving church and First Baptist Church in Kenedy as the 2013 top giving church.

Daniel Dotson has resigned as pastor of First Baptist Church in Blackwell.

Joe McKnight to First Baptist Church in Roby as pastor from Hollies Baptist Church in Keller, Va.